1. Technical Field
The invention relates to cellular telephones. More particularly, the invention relates to a method and apparatus for the field testing of cellular telephones.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Recently, the rate at which new telephone area codes have been added has increased. Although each area code has the potential to provide about one million additional telephone numbers, this capacity is apparently insufficient. It is thought that the increased need for area codes is a direct result of the tremendous demand for additional telephone numbers, which is due in large part to the nearly exponential growth in use of cellular telephones, i.e. consumers are enthusiastically embracing the cellular telephone concept.
Presently, there is significant cellular telephone user dissatisfaction with cellular telephone service, e.g. because a cellular telephone cannot make a connection (upon initiating or receiving a telephone call) or because such telephone drops a connection during a conversation (for example during a handoff sequence as the user moves from one cellular sector to another sector). This dissatisfaction is often expressed as a complaint that the telephone is not working properly. Such complaint is directed by consumers to the retailers from whom the cellular telephone was purchased. Because retailers do not typically service cellular telephones, their customer's complaints are forwarded to the various hardware repair organizations that do service cellular telephones.
Consumers also express their dissatisfaction with the service providers that bill them for cellular services. The service providers provide their customer's complaints to base station installers who are responsible for operating the field equipment that enables cellular telephony. While some of these complaints are system related, most such complaints relate to the consumer's cellular telephone. Although some of these complaints are readily resolved by instructing the consumer in the proper operation of the cellular telephone, much frustration and dissatisfaction with cellular telephone service could be avoided if an early diagnosis of cellular telephone disfunction could be made.
The cellular telephone industry includes cellular telephone retailers, cellular telephone manufacturers, hardware service providers, base station manufacturers, base station owners, and cellular service providers. There is presently no mechanism for coordinating the resources of these many sectors of the cellular telephone industry. However, because the cellular telephone industry is customer driven (as with any business), the cellular telephone industry could derive significant benefit from the improved customer satisfaction that would result from a mechanism for effecting early resolution of user complaints by testing in-service cellular telephones. Such early resolution of technical complaints would also serve to save the industry significant costs in handling and testing otherwise serviceable cellular telephones.